necessity is the mother of compromise. oh yeah--and invention, too.

I read a whole lot of books about babies while I was pregnant. Books about getting pregnant, being pregnant, buying baby stuff, things that can go wrong, things that can go right, having babies, feeding babies, getting them to sleep/wake/eat/get to their college classes on time. Books have been enormously helpful. In fact, I'm still reading books--I keep two or three close at hand in my little nursing niches so that I can grab them whilst my body is immobilized and I remember all the baby-related questions that have cropped up in the previous few hours. And let's not even mention the hours I've spent combing the internet... All this inquiry has taught me such useful tidbits as:

• What cradle cap is, and how to fix it
• How to use a vacuum cleaner to put a baby to sleep
• That breastmilk can taste like garlic
• That babies apparently like garlic-flavored mommy-nosh
• How to swaddle a baby so securely they won't get out on their own before kindergarten
• ...and many other useful things.

When it comes down to it, though, there are times (and plenty of them) when I've just had to stuff the books and magazines under a pillow so their authors won't witness me going absolutely against their advice. Like when we put Lily to sleep in the swing again even though this will apparently ruin the chances that she will ever put herself to sleep before she's 50. And when we don't change Noah for the third time in an hour because he's finally quiet and sleepy, and maaaaybe that squishy sound was really just gas.

Because I am not perfect, and my children apparently did not read all those books to know what they were supposed to do. And sometimes, I just need to bend the rules a little if I'm ever going to find time to sleep. (Or get to that stupid laundry.) And the reasonable part of me figures that Noah and Lily just might grow up happy despite all the compromise.

And now, further evidence in pictures: When two babies are crying and hungry at once, you improvise. A rubber band attached to the mobile of the baby papasan chair can feed a baby.



And when baby equipment keeps taking up all your sleeping spaces, you just sort of make do:


And when they don't make baby seats and helmets small enough, you find other ways:

This is Lily practicing to be Saudi Arabian:

And this is Noah practicing to be asleep. He's gotten so good, it's hard to tell he's only faking.

Seriously, can you even tell he's wide awake?